


Just like a smoking gun

by nymphori



Series: gold at your feet [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Athletics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-05-31 13:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6472690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nymphori/pseuds/nymphori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tetsurou doesn't think he'll survive nationals with Akaashi travelling with his team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just like a smoking gun

Whenever the short track happens to be on while Tetsurou is on the field he likes to watch. The runner from Fukurodani never quite looks like he wants to be here; always carrying himself with a resigned look, as if he has been forced to come, as if he has been forced to run. It changes though, when he stands behind his lane; aura emanating from within as he is sets up in his blocks.

It's like he becomes a different person.

It's captivating.

Then the race will inevitably end, and it's all over. He usually wins his races, but his win can never be read in his face. While the other members of his heat are hunched over and panting, he's standing up perfectly straight, waiting to walk over and get dressed again, waiting to be gone. Solemn look back in place.

His lack of effort makes it seem like he is in the wrong event, and he is in a way. The sprints are almost like a warm up, something he just happens to be good at.

When the hurdles are on the track, it's another thing entirely.

Tetsurou is jumping in time with the long distance events today so he won’t get to see it up close. The subject of his fascination, _Akaashi Keiji_ , will have to be watched from the stands today, which is never the same. From so far away his face can’t be seen, the moment of change can’t be detected. Instead all Tetsurou can see is the energetic captain of the team cheering him on from the discus ring. Even that is closer than Tetsurou, close enough to see.

Akaashi Keiji makes the hurdles look like nothing. Every single time.

Tetsurou has avoided the hurdles throughout high school. In junior high he was happy to try at every event, just wanting the rush of adrenaline that came from competing, from pushing his body to the limit for just a few seconds and the elation coursing through his body when it's over. In high school he's encouraged to focus on his horizontal jumps. It keeps him away from the bruises of the high jump bar and the constant knock of hurdles, it keeps him from panting way too hard after a distance run, it keeps him from dead arms and blisters on his hands. He gets to keep the rush of hitting his top speed before he's flying across the pit.

Watching Akaashi, that's different.

He runs through the hurdles like they aren’t there, which is impressive given the rise of his legs to ghost over them. Akaashi's a second year, and Tetsurou has seen him race before, at the summer and spring competitions last year. Tetsurou has seen him race in the Tokyo division, in the Kanto tournament, and then at nationals; and in all these tournaments, Tetsurou has never seen him hit a single hurdle.

He wishes that he could have that luck, that seamless elegance to make people watch him jump - but he is pretty sure he messed that up for himself at the last meet. A missed step and he crashed head first into the sand. No one could ever think him elegant after that.

But Akaashi had been at the start line then, and Tetsurou is sure that he laughed at his misfortune.

Hard to call it misfortune, when he's able to cause a change in that face.

Today, Akaashi races ahead again. Passing flawlessly over hurdles that other people are knocking over. One person falls down, but Akaashi crosses the line as the person in second place finally toes down from the final flight. Akaashi doesn’t cheer, doesn’t smile at his victory. He doesn’t seem impressed at all that he has possibly just broken the meet record - they will have to wait to check the wind speed for it to be official. He just resumes his regular appearance, pulls off his spikes, and drags on a pair of pants; walking back to his school’s section in the stands in his socks.

Tetsurou has never talked to him, yet he can’t help but notice all these things about him.

It's only a couple of minutes later that the announcement comes. _Official_. Tetsurou pulls up the records on his phone; if they were at the national track, it would have been a national high school record, as it is Akaashi will have to settle for only holding the Kanto record.

He seems fine with it, his school erupts into chaos following the announcement, and Tetsurou may see a small smile grace his features, but otherwise he is subdued. Quiet, where his team is loud.

Tetsurou manages to pull in third place for his triple jump, and fourth place for his long. It's enough to get him once more to nationals. This will be his last time there, because unless he picks up a recommendation he will need to retire and focus on studying for entrance exams.

Nationals, this year, is different.

Tetsurou is not sure that he is going to make it.

Fukurodani’s captain doesn’t make nationals, fouls off in three throws in two different events. Not even their promising first year makes it. Akaashi is the sole member of the Fukurodani team to advance to the next stage, and here is where Tetsurou dies.

Nekoma and Fukurodani, he learns, are close schools. They once trained together and practiced together; and despite this no longer being the case they maintain a rivalry. So, with only one member of the latter school making nationals, so that he is not left to fend for himself when they head to Osaka for the meet, Fukurodani asks their old friends to take care of their champion-in-the-making hurdler.

As captain, Nekoma ask Tetsurou to make sure that Akaashi feels at home.

 _It’s too much, he can’t do this_.

He usually rooms with Yaku, who threatens to spear him with a javelin every time Tetsurou gets too excited and wants to explore places in the dead of night because he _just can’t sleep_. They do it every single year, it’s almost like a tradition, especially the threats.

He can’t room with Akaashi. It’s too much, Tetsurou _feels too much_ to be able to room with Akaashi.

He doesn’t _trust himself_ to be in a room with Akaashi.

Perfect, graceful, beautiful. Akaashi Keiji.

How is Tetsurou meant to admire him from a safe distance, if the distance is lost? If the distance is shrunk down to barely a metre between their beds at the hotel they’re staying at. How can he sneak gazes, when there is nothing else he can possibly be looking at other than the way Akaashi folds those magical legs under himself as he sits to fold his uniform into the drawers of the room?

 _Akaashi Keiji folds his uniform into the drawers_.

They’re only going to be here for a couple of days. Tetsurou has never even taken any of his clothes out of his bag before he wears them not for any of the times he has gone away. He never makes a mess of the room, never even properly lives in the room. Tetsurou keeps everything in his bag, clean clothes, dirty clothes, his lucky socks and underwear to wear when he jumps, it all stays in the bag and only sees the light of day when it is time to be worn.

He makes it through night one, they don’t even talk. Just curl up to sleep after they get back from dinner although Tetsurou does spend far too long listening to Akaashi’s deep slow breaths. There’s nothing special about them, Akaashi doesn’t snore or make any noise or even shuffle in his bed. But Tetsurou counts each inhale, measures each exhale; shivers, knowing that Akaashi is so close that he can hear him breathe.

Tetsurou is only free from Akaashi's gravitational pull on the small bus they take to the stadium. As captain he sits up the front, stands to make a speech and encourage everyone before they all step off and disappear to complete whatever pre-competition rituals they all have.

Here the distance is present again. Here Tetsurou spends the whole of his speech talking directly into Akaashi’s green eyes, he doesn’t have the emotion to spare to be embarrassed by it. He’s too busy feeling so many other things as he stands here, _nationals_ , for the last time. He won’t be back again, not as a high schooler.

Not with Akaashi miraculously being a part of _his_ team.

They split up fairly soon once their off the bus. Tetsurou has to work hard keeping an eye on everyone while they all register and walk into the stadium. As soon as that's done though, he loses sight of them. Tetsurou himself sticks with the advisor and coaches, to put up their banner. As people finish off their events and the weekend draws to a close they will eventually all end up behind it.

By the end of the weekend the banner will have seen smiles and tears, and Tetsurou thinks that no matter what happens he will probably end up behind it with a combination of both.

Akaashi sets up his Fukurodani banner to wave underneath their Nekoma one, sets his bag down next to Tetsurou’s and sits down himself. Tetsurou should start warming up, he has preliminaries for long jump as one of the first events of the morning, and then the triple jump preliminaries are at midday. He won’t get to break until the afternoon where he will hopefully be free and happy to watch Akaashi run the hurdles and await his finals the next day. But... _he's sitting next to_ _Akaashi_.

He doesn’t actually get to sit for too long. He picks up his spike bag to leave, and the movement required for doing so has Akaashi focusing those green eyes on him and opening that delicious mouth to utter the words “Good luck.” It’s not even that much, but Tetsurou feels like he can leap the entire length of the pit, the track, the stadium, with those words in Akaashi’s deep voice to propel him forward.

Akaashi is standing at the fence with a load of other spectators as Tetsurou walks over with everyone to the pit. Tetsurou picks up a marker and checks the tape to find his spot and sets it in. He stands in line for a practice jump and when he looks up before he runs, Akaashi is still there, eyes on him. Watching _Tetsurou_ intently for once. He takes a deep breath, blows everything out of his lungs, and sucks in what he will need, he rocks twice on his feet, and runs. His speed feels good, the wind is behind him, and he feels the board creak beneath his feet as he runs through - all good signs.

His heart beats harder in his chest for Akaashi holding up his hands to him than it had been beating for his run. Akaashi is helping him. Akaashi is watching closely enough to help Tetsurou with his placement on the board. Tetsurou walks up to Akaashi at the fence, utters a thanks, and taps the fence twice as he tries to avoid ruffling Akaashi’s hair instead. Especially when up at the fence Akaashi is taller than him, is looking down on where Tetsurou is jumping.

He runs through one more time, but he doesn’t move his marker. Tetsurou takes his one deep breath, rocks twice, and sees if he can push himself faster, get even just a few more centimetres into the board without hitting the plasticine. It feels better. He runs through and it feels like his spikes have a better grip this time, like they are urging him to move. A look over at Akaashi shows his hands held much closer together. There’s probably still a good couple of centimetres between his hands, but Tetsurou likes to leave some room for error.

He jumps the distance required to make the finals on his second jump. He still has one spare jump though in which to give him a decent spot at the final. He doesn’t do anything close to his best, but he never has at an official competition. He does force his way into the top eight though, which out of the twenty people that will be moving on to the final is an achievement for him. It means he’ll be jumping thirteenth tomorrow; it means he has more time to see what the others are jumping and know what he has to do to keep up.

Tetsurou doesn’t stop when he’s finished. He moves over to the warm up area and jogs around to keep his muscles warm. There’s an hour now until he has to go back for triple jump, and this is the one he’s most likely to screw up, even though it’s the event he prefers. He likes the rhythm that comes with triple when compared to long jump, even if so far _at least once a year_ he screws the rhythm up so badly that he ends up head first in the sand. It might actually be why he likes it, it’s more of a personal challenge than anything. A bet with himself to wonder whether this time will be the right time.

He kind of loses focus once he realises that the one hundred metres is on the track behind him. He’s on his last jump and he has yet to make the distance that will put him in the final. He _needs_ to make this distance or he won’t be in the final, but this is already Akaashi’s heat, and his name is called to jump. At the same time. He’s on a time limit. He can either watch Akaashi and then rush his own jump, or get his jump out of the way and hope to catch the end of the race. The gun goes up and Tetsurou thinks that the small distance he needs to run is much less than Akaashi’s, it’s probably worth the risk.

He lands the jump and before he thinks to leave the sand he’s checking to see the outcome of the race. Akaashi is walking off the track second, which means he won’t automatically advance, he’ll have to wait and see how the other heats go. Tetsurou is glad he’s a jumper for this, at least he gets to hear how far everyone else jumped straight away. Like now, he’s still in the sand and the officials are trying to coax him away to measure, but he can see already that he’s gone far enough to make the final. He’ll probably be jumping first, but jumping at all tomorrow is better than not jumping.

He goes to sit down and wait. Akaashi doesn’t come back, and Tetsurou doesn’t want to look _too_ into him by going to check out the results posted at the finish line. If one of his kouhai invites him down to check though… well he’s nothing if not a good captain. And he’s going to wait, wait patiently. Wait through eating all of the food he’s brought with him, and stealing lollies from Yaku’s bag, and drinking two bottles of water and going to the vending machine for a pocari too because the heat is getting to him, and they are finally setting up the hurdles on the track.

“Don’t drool too much, you still have to sleep with him tonight.” Tetsurou coughs up the mouthful of drink that he's just taken at Yaku’s words. Yaku glares at him, knowing where Tetsurou’s mind has gone. “You’re disgusting. I’m going to ask to change rooms, you can sleep with Kai instead.”

“Please don’t!” And Tetsurou hates that he can hear how much it sounds like he's begging. They didn’t even talk last night, but today Akaashi said good luck - _and fuck he hadn’t even taken the time to say it back_ \- and watched him warm up and maybe jump, he doesn’t know when Akaashi left, and even offered him advice regarding his take off. So Tetsurou is sure that he can at least share two words, ask how Akaashi did even if he saw the end of the race and is barely containing his excitement right now at finally getting to see Akaashi run the hurdles.

 _His favourite thing_.

Akaashi is the fastest hurdler there is over the flat, but even beyond that he glides over each flight in a way that is far more graceful than the others in his heat. At three hurdles he’s half a flight ahead of everyone else. Tetsurou watches him slow down over the last two flights, and it’s a shame really, not to see him give his all the entire way, but it’s different to his own jumping. Akaashi wins the heat and that means he’s automatically through to the next day. He doesn’t need to go all out when he’s that good. Tomorrow he can try for the record that he should have won at the Kanto tournament, without needing to carry over exhaustion from pushing himself to the limit today.

It’s hard to be disappointed, not when Tetsurou is still watching as Akaashi sits to take his spikes off, walks off the track first, and after he leaves the tent Tetsurou is sure that those green eyes and that smirk of a smile are directed his way. He’s pretty sure he lets out an audible sigh too because Yaku elbows him in the gut with another call of _disgusting_ , but Tetsurou doesn’t care. Did Yaku not see that race? Akaashi is beautiful and heavenly enough on his own, but then he runs like _that_ and it’s like everything he is gets multiplied.

There are two more heats for the hurdles, but Tetsurou doesn’t care. He sits through them, sits through the relays where he spends half a second wondering if he will see Akaashi run again, until he remembers why that's a stupid thought.

Everyone regroups when the days comes to an end and they head back to their small bus to go have dinner, bathe, and settle in for the night until tomorrow. Until finals. Only three of his team won’t get to compete tomorrow, but Tetsurou is proud of everyone just for making it this far.

He hates that he's ended up bathing at the same time as Akaashi, he thinks someone in the world is against him, because this is too much. Especially with Yaku in the bathroom with them too, staring Tetsurou down to make sure that Tetsurou doesn’t stare Akaashi down. It’s hard though, _so hard_ , and he’s convincing himself not to look but Akaashi is making noises and pressing his hands against his thighs in a way that Kuroo knows _somewhere_ must be some form of self massage, but in his head he just hears those noises and pictures his own hands pressing down on those thighs instead.

When Kai is the one to slap Tetsurou on the back with his towel as he leaves Tetsurou knows that he must have been staring, hard, _too hard_. He hasn’t even started soaping himself down. Yaku is glaring at him, Kai is already getting dressed, and Akaashi has moved his hands from his thighs to the balls of his feet. He wants to know if Akaashi will massage him too, not his feet because he’s ticklish, but his legs, his own thighs. 

Tetsurou has nice thighs, perhaps he can tempt Akaashi with his own thighs.

He brings his hands to his thighs; Yaku shakes his head - and though his mouth doesn't open Tetsurou hears the word _disgusting_ again - leaving to sit in the bath. Tetsurou knows, _he knows_ , but when is this going to happen again? He digs in with his thumbs, and instead of feeling nice, instead of letting out a sensual moan the way Akaashi did, he yelps. He jumps away from the touch of his own hands, falls off the stool he's sitting on, and crashes to the floor.

It gets Akaashi to look at him, but his towel has slipped away, rests under him rather than over him and everything is on display. Akaashi smirks and looks away, and _yes_ his actions make Akaashi look at him, but they also make Akaashi laugh at him. Laughing not in the way that makes Tetsurou’s heart skip, but in a way that makes his insides crawl. Akaashi is attractive and beautiful, smooth and toned skin, tanned to follow the outline of his uniform; and all Tetsurou has are long lanky limbs and instead of swooning at his naked body on the ground, Akaashi is laughing. _Still_.

Yaku laughs too, but that is only to be expected. At least none of his kouhai are here to bear witness to this horrifying moment.

There’s no more delay. He washes himself, and sits in the bath for only a couple of minutes before leaving. Akaashi shares the water with him for one of those minutes, and Tetsurou counts every single second of the time he gets to bathe in the presence of grace and perfection - maybe some of it will rub off on him. He races to leave and ignores Yaku yelling at him to soak longer. Yes he knows it will be good for his muscles, but he’s embarrassed himself enough for one day and he needs some time away from Akaashi before they end up locked in a room together again.

 _Oh no,_ fuck. After all of _everything_ that's just happened Tetsurou still has to share a room with him.

He tries to fall asleep as quickly as possible, if he can be asleep when Akaashi comes in then Tetsurou won’t be tempted to ask why Akaashi laughed at him. He won’t be tempted in the same breath to ask if he can touch Akaashi’s thighs. They looked so toned and lean and pliant under Akaashi’s own touch and he’s not going to be able to sleep if he keeps thinking about Akaashi’s thighs. If he keeps thinking about Akaashi’s thighs there is going to be an entirely different problem to take care of before Akaashi comes back.

“Kuroo-san?” Pause everything. He hasn’t even considered the possibility of Akaashi specifically wanting to talk to him. This changes everything.

“Akaashi? What is it?”

He’s still in bed, facing away from the door. He only turns around when he feels the bed he’s on sink to one side. Akaashi has sat down on his bed, _while Tetsurou is in the bed_ , it’s too late now. He’s _gone_ and Akaashi is _right there_ so he’s stuck, there’s nothing to do about it. Akaashi’s thighs are sitting on his bed, _right there_.

“Are you going to be okay for tomorrow?” Tetsurou rolls over in the bed, he has no idea why he wouldn’t be okay for tomorrow. He’s not expecting a miracle, but there’s nothing in particular that he thinks he needs to be worried about. “You seemed in pain earlier, and you didn’t soak for very long. Yaku-san was worried about you-” Tetsurou highly doubts that “-are your legs sore? Did you pull a muscle?”

“Nothing hurts, I hurt _myself_ earlier but it wasn’t a pulled muscle or anything like that.”

“Still, aren’t you going to be sore for tomorrow? You didn’t soak for very long.” Tetsurou watches Akaashi as he speaks. Sees the way he catches the fingers of one hand in his other, twists them. Sees something flash behind his eyes. _Resolve_. “I can massage your legs if you like? I do it to myself all the time, and they aren’t here but my team say that my hands are like magic.” Tetsurou hears the hint of pride there, pride at the way his team talks about him.

He’s also stuck on the word massage, on the word magic, on the word hands. He's stuck on Akaashi asking to massage him with magic hands.

Apparently he was worrying about falling asleep before Akaashi got back for so long that it has already happened. He is dreaming and dream Akaashi is here offering him a massage.

“I’m fine, really.” 

They are on _his_ bed, alone in _their_ room. Akaashi can’t give him a massage, can’t touch him with those magic hands or Tetsurou is going to embarrass himself even more than he already has tonight.

Tetsurou sees it happen, sees Akaashi’s hands reach out. He’s said the words, but it’s probably written all over his face how much he actually wants Akaashi’s hands on him. The only thing he can hope is that his face doesn’t give away exactly _how_ Tetsurou wants Akaashi’s hands on him. The other thing he’s grateful for is that the hands aren’t pressing at his thighs the way Akaashi had been massaging himself earlier. The thing that Tetsurou lost himself in earlier. Instead Akaashi's hands come down on his calves, moving slowly, smoothly, precisely. 

His legs hadn’t felt sore. He cooled down properly at the track, which is usually enough even without soaking for a good half hour in the bath afterwards. Still, he can’t deny that whatever Akaashi is doing feels nice. The touch feels nice, and as his hands move slowly up towards his knees, he feels the lower part of his leg relax further. It feels looser, it feels lighter.

“Wow, your hands really are magic.” He’s rolled over onto his stomach now, and the words are muffled into his pillow.

Just as Tetsurou is thinking that he both does and does not want Akaashi’s hands to continue all the way up his legs, they stop, just above his knee, Akaashi's hand moving to work on his other leg. Soon both of his lower legs feel like they've become one with the bed. There’s no real feeling to them at all. They’re loose and lax in a way that he’s not sure they’ve ever felt. Not even on days when he isn't doing some form of exercise.

Tetsurou feels Akaashi get up from the bed, hears him shuffling around the room and settle into his own bed.

“Goodnight Akaashi.” He mumbles, once more into the pillow.

“Goodnight Kuroo-san.”

It’s probably his imagination, but Akaashi’s voice sounds so much lower. It’s probably just to be quieter, but instead the tone runs through his ears, through his mind, saying other words while those magic hands do other things. His legs have settled in for the night, but other parts of him are wide awake, and he’s lost any chance of being able to deal with it. He’s not going to get up now. He can’t excuse himself to the bathroom suddenly when he’s so obviously in a position to sleep. Akaashi probably won’t find anything weird about it if he does, but Tetsurou will feel paranoid about it. Paranoid that Akaashi will _know_.

So he ignores it, and forces himself to sleep.

As always, the air feels different on day two.

It blows with more energy, it’s filled with more tension. _Finals_. Everybody competing here today is competing to be the best in the nation. Everybody here today is out to make a name for themselves, for their school, for the hours of training and practice that have gone into bringing them here. Today is when all their effort pays off. Most of the people here will have another chance at it, but for Tetsurou this is likely to be his last.

He drops his bag off behind the banner that is still up from yesterday and makes sure that the ones who won’t be competing today are doing well, that they aren’t too upset sitting back and not being able to participate beyond cheering. Today the triple jump is up first, so he can’t even sit with them to make sure that they really are all right. He can only trust in them and hope that the coach and advisor will keep an eye on them while he can’t.

Everyone else from his team is on the warm up field. Some of them are jogging around while others are simply sitting around and talking to their friends and rivals from other schools. He thinks it would be nice if the ones who aren’t doing anything until the afternoon could sit and cheer with the others, but he also understands the adrenaline that comes from competing with friends. The rush that comes from talking to people who share this same love, but who can only be seen a couple of times in a year. He won’t disturb them.

If he and Akaashi were those kind of friends, Tetsurou wouldn’t go back to cheer for anyone else. Not if he had the opportunity to talk.

He does see Akaashi here; talking to someone whose physique paints him as a hurdler as well, and his uniform tells Tetsurou that he is from Miyagi. They're both standing too far away for Tetsurou to read the school printed on the uniform, but not too far away for him to see the way that Akaashi seems to relax while talking to him. There’s a smile on his face that Tetsurou sees briefly before shaking himself away from focusing on Akaashi and chastising himself into warming up properly. Akaashi’s hands on him last night mean nothing if he pulls a muscle now and has to pull out from his events.

He finishes in the top ten for his triple jump. It’s the best he’s ever done, and because it's his favourite event he is privately proud of himself. He wonders if he did so well because he hasn’t been able to see Akaashi since the time in the field, or if he would have done better had Akaashi been at the fence again, if he might have tried to show off. Definitely, he definitely would have tried to show off.

He sits in the stands after his jump, watching with only a minimal amount of jealousy as the top eight run through another three rounds of jumps. It’s still the best he’s ever placed in the triple, and this way he’s free to watch as Yaku intimidates everyone on the field as the smallest guy lining up to throw. He likes watching Yaku throw, mostly because he’s surprised that Yaku can do so much with so little. The others around him are so much taller that he doesn’t stand out much, but Yaku has made it to nationals every season that Tetsurou has known him. The other competitors probably know better than to judge him at this point. The only one who seems not to know this is their own pesky first year, who while incredibly clumsy on the ground really knows how to move once he’s in the air.

Finishing early also means this, as the four hundred metre races come to a close, instead of jumping, Tetsurou is in prime position to watch Akaashi race. He's forgotten to ask if he made it to the hundred metre final, but there he is lining up behind the girls, and that’s all the information Tetsurou needs. He stands up and leans over the fence. There is nobody from Nekoma in the race, so he won’t even feel bad if he's caught cheering for Akaashi. He is after all a temporary cat for this tournament. Living with them and travelling with them and Yaku is the only one who knows that Tetsurou’s cheering goes further than just taking care of their adopted owl; but Yaku is too busy spearing grass and nowhere near him for the moment.

Akaashi is quick from the blocks, but it’s only for a few steps.

“Go Akaashi!” He cheers out. He hears someone from his team shout out the same behind him, and he’s happy that even though he's here alone Akaashi has Nekoma to cheer for him.

“Keiji!” 

Tetsurou ignores the call. He recognises the name, but he’s never heard anyone refer to Akaashi by his given name. It’s probably for someone else in the race.

“Go Akaashi!” He shouts again, to drown out the noise of the people around him cheering for the people who aren’t Akaashi. 

He finishes in the back half of the race, but he doesn’t look too disappointed in the results. As a matter of fact he’s smiling as he walks down the other side of the fence, waving at Tetsurou, Tetsurou raises a hand to wave back, but hears that name again. “Keiji! You looked good!”

It’s the guy from Miyagi again. “Oh Chikara-kun, thanks for cheering. I didn’t really expect anything because the team isn’t here.”

“I didn’t want you to feel lonely Keiji.”

“Oh, thank you too Kuroo-san.”

He’s been caught staring, but it’s hard not to. Tetsurou hasn’t heard Keiji talk so casually ever. He’s always been so formal whenever he talks to Tetsurou, or when Tetsurou has heard him talk to anyone else. Who is this guy from Karasuno? How did he manage to get Akaashi speaking so casually?

“No worries, you’re an honorary Nekoma member this weekend.”

Akaashi smiles at him, and it seems that with his friend around it is more open, less guarded. Tetsurou loves it so much more, but he wishes that Akaashi would smile at him like that without this _Chikara_ being present.

“Thank you,” he says to Tetsurou, and then turns away. “So are we doing lunch?”

This is an even nicer smile, Tetsurou makes a note to himself that Akaashi gives the sweetest smiles to the idea of food. He needs to learn how to cook. 

“I packed all your favourites!”

They leave off together, and all Tetsurou gets is Akaashi waving over his shoulder at him. 

 _Tetsurou doesn’t know his favourite food, Tetsurou doesn’t get to call him Keiji_. 

All Tetsurou gets to do is sleep in a bed a metre away from him, which seems like so much but now he knows it's nothing. He and Akaashi aren’t even really friends, they haven’t even talked to each other at other tournaments before being suddenly thrown together at this one. Tetsurou has kept himself to long wistful gazes and sometimes considered himself lucky enough to make eye contact. He's seventeen years old and silly enough to think that it's enough, that those small things meant something. 

They mean nothing.

Akaashi probably doesn’t even consider him a friend, Tetsurou is just the captain of the team he needs to travel with, to stay with, because his own team was unlucky in the previous tournament. Akaashi is only in his room because Tetsurou is the captain and responsible - he doesn’t know who believes this of him, but he isn’t complaining - and it's better than rooming him with somebody else. Akaashi helped him jump yesterday just to be nice, because he was there, because they had been sitting together for all of two seconds beforehand. Akaashi is respectful and polite but that doesn’t automatically mean that he thinks of Tetsurou as his friend.

No matter how much Tetsurou wants for that to be the case.

He’s distracted from his thoughts when he sees Yaku walking behind an official, two other guys with him. It’s a good sign, especially when they stop at the finish line. Tetsurou watches as their names get written down, and then Yaku heads for the stands, done for the day. It’s a long way to come and a lot to sit through for one event, but that's the nature of the sport.

Yaku holds up two fingers as he approaches, and wears the biggest smile Tetsurou has ever seen on his face.

“Congratulations!”

Yaku doesn’t sit down, having passed on the good news, he leaves again. Off to cool down. Tetsurou would join him, but the program has been burned into his mind, and after two more events on the track, Akaashi will be showing himself again. He can’t miss it.

Tetsurou can’t miss him.

Not in the finals.

Not where it counts.

The two hundred metres finishes quickly, but Tetsurou is sure that they have added extra laps to the fifteen hundred. Does it usually take this long? How many laps are they running? How many is it usually?

He knows it’s all in his head, he’s just anxious, nervous, excited; all three at once. Which is strange because it’s not even for him, not for his event, not for someone in his team, not even someone, as he has recently discovered, who he can even really call a friend. Then again, friendship isn’t necessary, it isn’t the word he has in mind, it isn’t what he wants from seeing Akaashi race this event. From seeing Akaashi run an event that seems made for him, even though it’s impossible. Akaashi wasn’t born to hurdle, the hurdles were created for Akaashi Keiji to run; so that the two could meet and create a work of art on this track of hopes and dreams.

Akaashi’s friend is in the race too it seems. A lane between them. Akaashi is in lane five, seeded first, which only makes sense as Tetsurou recalls the almost record from the Kanto tournament, _the should have been a record_ except for ridiculous technicalities.

The gun goes off, but Tetsurou doesn’t blink, keeps his eyes on Akaashi. The girls racing beforehand are unimportant to him. All he has in his sights right now is Akaashi. Stretching his arms across his body, pulling up an ankle to stretch his quads. There are no smiles for his friend any more, no camaraderie. Only the lane and flights that lie ahead of him.

From his periphery Tetsurou notes the officials running onto the track, placing hurdles back into position from the girls race. Akaashi steps forward at the same time and fiddles with the blocks. Sets up his position. Bursts out over two flights and then walks back to stand behind them.

It’s entirely Tetsurou’s imagination, but he is sure that piercing green make contact with him for the briefest of moments. Piercing green and burning with fire and passion and a want to win. 

A need to win.

The canvas is prepared and the artist is waiting: hips held parallel to the track, arms steady, a gun held to the sky.

It sounds and Akaashi is out first, always first. Tetsurou holds his breath until Akaashi is over the first flight. There’s no second sound, Akaashi can apparently feel the timing, feel the race starting. It is made for him, it only makes sense.

“Akaashi!” He manages to shout out half way through the race, too caught up in movements. In flying, in flights, in the minimal movement of Akaashi’s body as he clears the hurdles, in the snap of his legs when he lands. Quick, concise, not a single motion wasted. His arms are held tight and his chest is held high and Tetsurou feels like he’s holding his breath.

He’s not even racing, not even there. He has nothing at stake in this. All he’s able to do is bare witness to the magic created on the track. “Keiji!” He finishes a name, seconds after he had started calling it.

And here he sees it.

For the first time-

He sees Akaashi stumble.

His trailing foot clips the hurdle, the last of the flights. In two steps he is back on track and in three more he is over the finish line. The first to cross it.

For the first time Tetsurou’s eyes leave his form, look to the timer, he doesn’t know the record off by heart though, he doesn’t know if this is good.

He can see Akaashi, breathing heavily through his chest, shaking hands with the other runners, sitting down to take off his spikes. Tetsurou doesn’t even know who else placed, where they placed, how far behind they were. His eyes are only for Akaashi, in this race, in this event, that is the only place they will ever be. Tetsurou has full confidence in one day seeing Akaashi on his television, wearing red and white in place of gold and white, the rising sun blazing across his chest.

It might be awkward, but he should probably get Akaashi’s autograph now, while they kind of know each other. Years down the line Akaashi might forget the weird captain from an opposing school that he shared a room with once. It's a shame, but inevitable; they only have this weekend. After this it is unlikely that Tetsurou will ever see him again. One more night, a bus back to Tokyo, then the rest of summer break to think about what could have been and what never will be.

He's depressed himself.

“Kuroo, cheer up. Your boyfriend’s coming.”

Tetsurou picks his head up at Yaku’s voice, unsure when he even dropped it to stare at his feet. Akaashi is heading towards them, spikes in one hand and a smile painted across his face. Nicer than the smile he gave to his friend earlier in the day, bigger than anything Tetsurou has ever seen.

“Congratulations!” Tetsurou shouts, loud enough to make Akaashi jump in place. 

“Thank you Kuroo-san, I heard you cheering.”

Tetsurou feels the smile on his own face pull a little wider. Akaashi heard him. Picked his voice out in the crowd when Tetsurou knows that most of a race is filled with the rush of air, counting down a rhythm, blood pulsing and pushing everything to it’s limit. Through that, Akaashi heard him. “I told you, honorary Nekoma member today, I’ll always cheer for my team!”

Tetsurou follows Akaashi up the stands, watches him stow his spikes away in his bag and pull out a rice ball to chew on.

“How was your time?” 

Akaashi’s cheeks are still flushed from the race, his breathing still faster than usual. Sweat is gleaming on his forehead, sliding down the back of his neck, soaking through his competition gear, showing his skin through the white material. Tetsurou brings his eyes back up to Akaashi’s face before they dip down to the small of his back, to the black shorts which unfortunately won’t turn transparent under sweat but which still cling tight around him all the same.

“It was slower than Kanto.”

“Ah, that’s too bad.” Tetsurou says. That means that it won’t be a record. “You looked good up until the last flight. How much were you off by?”

“I ran thirteen thirty-four.” Tetsurou nods his head. “The record is thirteen thirty-three.”

“It really is too bad about that last flight then, that could have been it.”

Akaashi picks his head up, rice ball held away from his mouth, and looks at Tetsurou. The gaze is intense, searching. Akaashi makes an affirmative noise, and Tetsurou can tell the conversation is over. He can't tell whether Akaashi is disappointed or not at having been so close to the record. “Well, I need to go cool down. Good luck with your next event Kuroo-san.”

“Thank you!” He watches Akaashi leave, heading over to the warm up field, he should probably head over soon too. He will wait for now though. Wait for the feeling in his chest to disappear because he talked to Akaashi without saying anything stupid, without doing anything stupid, without Yaku calling him out for drooling, and it ended with Akaashi wishing him luck. That's all the luck he needs.

Yaku kicks him in the back anyway, although it's probably because he is staring in the direction Akaashi walked for far too long.

“Hey lover boy, how about you go warm up so that you can actually jump this afternoon. Akaashi won’t be giving you massages tonight if you don’t even bother preventing yourself from getting hurt.”

“You think he’ll massage me again?” Tetsurou is hopeful, elated at the thought. “How do you know he massaged me?”

Yaku smiles. “I may have given him the suggestion.”

“Yaku! Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

“No, and please don’t start now.”

Tetsurou might have pressed further, but Yaku came second today for an event in which he throws spears. If Tetsurou annoys him too much he will be used for their next training session, he doesn’t want that. Instead he picks up his bag and heads out to warm up. 

It's bitter sweet really. One last event for the summer, one last event to complete all his summers spent under the sun. Training, practicing, running, jumping, dodging javelins. After this event, after today, it's back to prep classes and cram school and entrance exams - unless a recommendation comes his way. He isn’t counting on something like that though. 

He finds people he recognises in the warm up area, people he has seen before at nationals in other years. Nishi from Hokkaido who for whatever reason is always in the steeplechase as well as long jump, and the frightening Tachi from Osaka who terrifies Tetsurou whenever he smiles, but Tetsurou won’t let him know that, will only respond to them with scheming smiles to hide his shaking legs. He runs laps with them, sharing only a few words before settling into silence. They sit down to stretch together, and then split up to run through their separate drills.

They're called to marshalling over the loudspeaker, and it's go time.

Yaku is standing at the fence this time, holding out his hands to Tetsurou for practice jumps and he tries not to feel let down that it isn’t Akaashi there again. He is used to Yaku doing this for him, it's routine, their usual, at every tournament they are at together. Yaku also knows when Tetsurou is close enough; not quite right before the plasticine, but close enough to not bother adjusting any further.

He likes long jump, is better at it then the triple, but it is triple jump he has more fun with. Bounding down the runway to a set rhythm, years in the making - it's more fun than a simple take off. 

His seeding from the day before means he gets to sit through most of the jumpers before worrying about himself. It lets him know that he doesn’t need to worry too much. There are about five people before Tetsurou jumps that make it further than he did to qualify, it just means it will be a fight to make it to the top eight, to get those extra three jumps in.

He makes it in at number seven. Only one centimetre ahead of where they start to do count backs to figure out number eight. He counts his blessings for Yaku helping with his practice jumps and his placement on the board, that’s probably all that it has come down to. He has Yaku to thank for giving his high school sports career an extra three jumps. Tetsurou will never tell Yaku this. He will however tell Yaku how much he loves him again, because as he chugs down some water and looks over to where Yaku is standing, he sees Akaashi there next to him. Talking to Yaku, watching Tetsurou.

Akaashi is watching him, again.

He has three more jumps to impress Akaashi.

The new rotation has him jumping second. There is only one person in front of Tetsurou to compare himself to. He has to do his best from the start, this time there’s no point listening to distances, because six people are jumping after him who each have a further point they know to aim for. He has nothing. He has Akaashi at the fence and his heart pumping away in his chest, telling him that if he does well, if he moves further, then maybe, _just maybe_ , he will get those hands on him again later. Maybe, more immediately, Akaashi’s voice will call out his name, will cheer for him. He has to do well though. He needs to do well.

These are his last jumps in high school.

He jumps further on his first jump, if he only made it this far earlier he could have been later in the rotation. The sound of murmuring under the tent as they read out his jump is music to Tetsurou’s ears. It's the sound of the others, realising that their placement for the first round will not be carried over for this set of jumps. Nothing is set in stone, in sports they never are. Especially in this, where a timely gust of wind can either hinder or help.

Where the call of a boy, as he runs to take off, makes Tetsurou feel like this time he can fly further.

After two jumps, Tetsurou sits in third place. He’s never done this well before. He’s jumped a personal best and is keeping up with people he has never even considered measuring himself against. This is nice, this is new, and he knows the reason for it.

“Tetsurou! Make it count!”

That one does not help. That one, makes Tetsurou forget that he’s supposed to jump. He runs through, to the middle of the pit. A red flag is raised and Tetsurou stays where he’s stopped. Musical laughter floats to his ears, even though when he looks, he sees that Akaashi is trying to muffle it with his hands. Yaku is crouched down next to him, giggling on the floor, but Akaashi is looking back at Tetsurou, light in his eyes and a smile hidden behind his fingers.

He walks back to the tent, sits down and tips his water bottle over his head. He lets it cool him down.

 _He forgot to jump_. 

The best he’s ever done and then he forgot to jump. 

Two and a half years of daily practices, morning runs, weekend training camps, and his final jump has been a foul, a run through, not counted. He should be angry, upset, _with himself?_ Instead all he has is that voice in his head, Akaashi’s voice. _Tetsurou_.

Akaashi called his name.

 _His name_.

It makes it hard for him to care about the jump at all.


End file.
